Mary Ward

Mary Ward, born in 1827 in County Offaly, became the first recorded victim of a road fatality in Ireland when a steam-powered carriage struck her in Birr on 31 August 1869. The sudden violence ended the life of a talented scientist, writer and mother of eleven children, forcing a nation to confront the deadly potential of new machinery. Her death transformed a local tragedy into a national warning about the danger hiding inside progress.